Archive for January, 2007

The Right Way to Deal with Parody »

Linden Labs, the people behind Second Life, recently sent a letter specifically permitting parody of the burgeoning online service. [link]
The parody, called “Get a First Life”, exhorts users to “Go Outside. Membership is Free!” amongst other hilarious send-ups of the service.
This has resulted in positive coverage throughout the blogosphere, even recently rising to coverage [...]

Right Idea, Wrong Reason »

A National Passenger Bill of Rights for the transportation industries is an idea that has been long discussed, and whose time has come.
Unfortunately, the idea is now being championed by a group of upset travellers whose trips were interrupted by a freak thunderstorm affecting the entire state of Texas. [link]
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(Don’t) Try this at home? »

This story could also be filed under RTFA. (read the f– article)
Some researchers made public their findings that microwaving a wet sponge could kill bacteria that had infected it, providing security against spreading infections in the act of cleaning.
Some people, on testing the findings…..forgot to wet their sponges. Hilarity ensued. [link]
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Ubuntu Studio »

Ubuntu’s development teams recently announced a new Ubuntu flavor aimed at multimedia and video production environments. [link]
Speaking as someone who’s tried to steer video-editing friends into F/OSS, only to find the true GPL solutions “not yet ready for prime-time”, I applaud this move: the right move at the right time.
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Spam works? »

C’mon, we all knew there was a reason for the massive influx of embedded-GIF spam touting penny stocks.
The reason is simple. It works: [link]
(via /.)
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Adults are the new kids? »

Interesting observation on Godin’s blog today.
Godin’s post concerns the fact that adults are increasingly oriented towards buying things that please them, rather than things that are necessarily useful or functional.
To extend the thought, children, or at least childish impulses, govern a majority of purchasing decisions.
For younger, single people, it’s because they aren’t burdened by children, [...]

Got them IE7 blues »

Is it just me or is IE7 even more hopelessly broken than IE6?
IE7 was supposed to mark a movement towards standards compliance, yet it seems as though there’s even more stuff that doesn’t work right. Even the long-promising alpha-transparency PNG fix is only half-functional.
I checked around, and the official IE7 blog keeps asking people to [...]

Will it Blend? »

I’m surprised this little internet gem missed my attention as long as it did.
Blendtec, a manufacturer of blenders for both the home and commercial markets, was faced with the need for a creative way of separating them from the competition.
So what did they do? Create a series of very catchy viral videos, featuring a humorously [...]

10 SEO Improvements you can do right now »

There’s a lot of misinformation out there about how to accomplish proper Search Engine Optimization. An entire market has cropped up to service the needs of business owners eager to climb to the top of google in rankings.
Many of those services use so-called “black hat” techniques that can get your site penalized! In fact, SEO [...]

Here’s your new cause celebre »

How many times have you managed to stumble into a pornographic pop-up?
With or without having visited a pornography site?
I know I have, and I take a fairly dim view of internet porn.
Enter a substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut, whose insidious crime of being technologically hapless could earn her 40 years in prison. [link]
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